Kidical Mass hosting a Geocache-themed family bike ride Sunday

HUNTINGTON — Kidical Mass is sponsoring a geocache-themed family bicycle ride for Sunday.

Anyone interested is asked to meet up at the Ritter Park fountain at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 26 for a family-friendly ride that will be centered around the GPS-treasure hunt called geocaching.

“Let's gather at Ritter Park fountain where we will divide up into geocaching teams (if there are enough to split up), gather our maps, pencils, caching supplies, get a pre-ride briefing (safety first), and ride off around town (not too far) in search of treasure,’ writes organizer Stacy Bisker.
The ride will wrap up at Ritter with a hike over the hill to picnic.

“I will do my best to find one of the two ice cream trikes and invite them for our post ride festivities,” Bisker writes. “You’re on your own for treats, but I will be bringing spoke card art supplies to gussie up our wheels while we wait for everyone to gather.”

Kidical Mass is a legal, safe and fun bike ride for kids, kids at heart, and their families. The first ride was held in April 2008 in Eugene, Oregon and has now spread to more than two dozen communities throughout North America and beyond. The rides are meant to be family friendly bike rides through a community. They generally meet at a park and end not too far away at another fun spot (park, ice cream shop, pool, or special event). Each community figures out the type of ride, routes, locations, and events that work best for their area families.

There are currently 27 cities in the United States and Canada hosting Kidical Mass including Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, San Diego and Denver.

Huntington Kidical Mass is a community bicycle ride which Huntington resident Stacy Bisker began last year. Bisker is a bicycling advocate and writes her own cycling blog called "A Simple Six."

Past rides have included a ride to Harris Riverfront Park, where riders toured the Nina and Pinta replica ships docked at the riverfront, a Christmas lights bicycle ride, as well as rides through Highlawn, the Southside and Ritter Park.

The bicycle rides are to let families become more familiar with biking on roadways in their neighborhoods, Bisker said. The rides normally have a Huntington Police Department escort and to become more familiar using the bicycle lanes in downtown and utilizing both the roads and trails along the PATH or Paul Ambrose Trail for Health.

For more information, check out Bisker's blog at www.asimplesix.com/kidicalmass and check out Huntington Kidical Mass on Facebook. For more info about Kidical Mass, go online at www.kidicalmass.org